As part of Westview's new STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) focus program, the school is hosting monthly programs on the first Wednesdays of the month, the St. Vrain Valley School District's late-start days. The program is also open to fifth-graders who will attend Westview next year.

So far, the school has held programs on space physics and marine biology. Next month, the school will have a presentation on chemistry for the kids, and on the late start day in May, there will be a presentation on wind.

After each STEM event, LaCrosse has received positive feedback from both parents and students, he said.

Fred Gluck, a University of Colorado Discovery Science instructor, visited on Wednesday to teach students about lasers.

The students who got out of bed early to attend the program were rewarded with the chance to use the lasers themselves in the target exercise. After hitting the target once, Gluck encouraged them to add mirrors and complicate their maze.

"We got nine mirrors," said David New, a Westview Middle School sixth-grader, like Jeremiah. Aiming the laser toward their target, the team -- the two boys, as well as Longmont Estates fifth-graders Payton Graba and Nita Creager -- set mirrors, in the order of the reflection, at the 12 o'clock position, angled to the right; at 1 o'clock; at 11 o'clock; at 3 o'clock; at 6 o'clock; at 5 o'clock, inside the perimeter, facing outside the circle; and at 5 o'clock, outside the perimeter, facing the target.

From left, Longmont Estates Elementary fifth-grader Nita Creager, and Westview Middle School sixth-graders Jeremiah Medina and David New use mirrors to aim a laser at a target during a STEM demonstration at Westview Middle School on Wednesday morning.
(
LEWIS GEYER
)

Another team used 16 mirrors, the most in the class, to hit the target.

When Gluck questioned students about the exercise, Hygiene student Conrad Casciato, 10, pointed out one lesson.

"(The laser is) going to bounce off the mirror at the same angle it hits the mirror," Conrad said.

Gluck set up a laser show to teach students more. With spinning mirrors, he projected different designs on the wall as the kids actually took in as they oohed and aahed at the changing green shapes on the wall.

"It was so cool when he did the light show," David said. "I really liked that a lot."

The instructor also discussed how lasers are used, such as in construction, in surgery and for reading bar codes. One example he gave was scientists' bouncing a laser off a mirror on the moon to determine its distance from the earth.

"Every day, they're coming up with new uses for lasers," Gluck said.

Gluck emphasized the need for safety, explaining that lasers' intensity can damage the eye before the brain knows to blink. To illustrate his message, he focused a tiny green dot on a balloon. Shocked students jumped at its ear-splitting explosion.

Payton and Nita, the Longmont Estates students, were fascinated by the presentation.

"I thought it would be interesting to learn about lasers and see how they work," said Nita, who had not attended any previous Westview late-start events.

The girls learned during the program that light actually isn't white, but a combination of red, green and blue light, they said.

The program also increased their interest in Westview's STEM focus, which they'd heard about.

Local duo joining overseas exhibition excursionFilippo Swartz went to Italy, where his mother was born and he spent the first year or so of his life, every summer until he had to stick around to be a part of summer football activities for the Longmont High School team. Full Story

MacIntyre says the completed project will be best in Pac-12There were bulldozers, hard hats, mud, concrete trucks, blueprints, mud, cranes, lots of noise and, uh, mud, during the last recruiting cycle when Colorado football coach Mike MacIntyre brought recruits to campus. Full Story

Most people don't play guitar like Grayson Erhard does. That's because most people can't play guitar like he does. The guitarist for Fort Collins' Aspen Hourglass often uses a difficult two-hands-on-the-fretboard technique that Eddie Van Halen first popularized but which players such as Erhard have developed beyond pop-rock vulgarity.
Full Story